This invention relates to an apparatus for fabricating honeycomb core strip and, more particularly, to an apparatus for fabricating honeycomb core strip of the type utilized and disclosed in my co-pending application for U.S. patent Ser. No. 457,168, filed Jan. 13, 1983, and entitled HONEYCOMB SEAL STRUCTURE.
A co-pending application entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FABRICATING HONEYCOMB SEAL structure is Ser. No. 503,542, filed June 13, 1983.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that conventional honeycomb core strip for fabricating honeycomb core may be preformed into the desired conventional corrugated configuration by a wide variety of different types of machines. In some instances, the core strip may be fabricated by various types of tools which can be utilized in punch presses or the like to stamp the configuration of the core strip into an elongated metal blank.
In other machines gears are utilized to form a configuration in the core strip which will result in a hexagonal cell when the core strip is joined with a mating core strip in the process of fabricating the desired honeycomb core.
However, all of the machines described hereinabove have been designed to fabricate conventional core strip and would not be capable of fabricating the hinged core strip which has been previously disclosed in the above-referenced co-pending applications.
This is due to the fact that the hinged core strip of my invention is characterized by the provision of hinges at the nodes thereof which materially enhances the ability of the core strip to sustain significant deformation as it is wound into the helical configuration of the honeycomb seal structure defined in the co-pending application directed to such structure.